Wellston, Missouri: Police Shoot and Kill Man Barricaded in Excavator During Warrant Call

A man died on Thursday, Nov. 5, after police shot him during a long standoff at a business in Wellston, Missouri, where officers had gone to serve a mental health warrant. The St. Louis County Police Department said the man barricaded himself inside an excavator, used the machine to destroy property, and stayed inside through more than two hours of negotiation before two officers fired their weapons.

The warrant call on Sutter Avenue

Officers with the North County Police Cooperative arrived at a business in the 1200 block of Sutter Avenue at about 1:05 p.m. on Thursday to serve the warrant, according to the county police statement. Police said the man refused to comply with officers and climbed into the excavator on the property, where he barricaded himself.

From inside the machine, police said, he began destroying property at the business. Officers stayed with the call as the standoff stretched past two hours. The department has not said what led to the warrant, and it released no information about the man's mental health history.

The response team is called in

At about 3:30 p.m., North County officials called for help from the St. Ann Multi-Jurisdictional Special Response Team, a unit drawn from several area departments that handles high-risk calls. Team members took over negotiations and kept trying to talk the man out of the excavator, police said.

Police said he stayed inside the machine and kept damaging property. Officers tried less-lethal methods to subdue him, and those attempts failed. The department has not said which less-lethal tools were used or how many times officers tried them.

At some point during the confrontation, two Hazelwood Police officers serving on the response team fired their service weapons and struck the man, according to the statement. Police have not said how many rounds were fired or what happened in the final moments before the shots. Both officers are 28 years old. One has four years of law enforcement experience and the other has eight, the department said. Neither officer was named.

The man dies, and county investigators take over

The wounded man was taken to an area hospital, where he later died from his injuries, police said. His name and age have not been released. No officers were physically injured during the incident, and the department reported no other injuries to employees or bystanders.

At the request of the North County Police Cooperative, the county police Bureau of Crimes Against Persons, through its Force Investigative Team, has taken over the investigation. That team reviews shootings and other uses of force by officers in St. Louis County. Investigators will work to establish the full sequence of events, including what happened immediately before the officers fired.

Police asked anyone with information about the incident to call county investigators at 636-529-8210. Callers who want to stay anonymous, or who may qualify for a reward, can contact CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477. The department said the investigation is active and that early details could change as detectives gather more evidence.